Twister is the party game popular for its flexibility… just kidding. Twister is actually the craziest tornado movie I’ve ever seen. It’s the quintessential tornado themed blockbuster released in the disaster movie resurgence of the 90’s. I first watched Twister during my sophomore year of high school. Although its science is questionable, it was one of the many natural disaster movies we watched. Twister takes the very risky profession of storm chasing and makes it personal.
Helen Hunt plays Jo, a woman who dedicates her life to hunting tornados after one killed her father. The great Bill Paxton is her husband and fellow storm chaser also named Bill. They’re getting a divorce for two reasons, one is to argue frequently and the other is to have his psychiatrist girlfriend there to explain tornado terminology to (and say “We’ve got cows”). Their team is just as crazy as they are. Although it’s mostly just Philip Seymour Hoffman doing his early frat bro thing. The main personal conflict is between them and the evil corporate storm chasers lead by Cary Elwes. Both teams are attempting to launch a tornado analyzing device called DOROTHY into the eye of the storm.
But none of that’s as important as the real stars of the movie. The tornadoes in Twister are a crazy spectacle that wreck a ton of havoc. Tornadoes suck up a dangerous amount of debris including cows. Characters experience several tornadoes in open fields and one in a drive-in for The Shining. The most ridiculously over-the-top tornado by far is the serious F5 that Jo & Bill somehow manage to out run and survive long enough to see the eye. Twister puts an exciting spin on disaster.

Jo and Bill run from a tornado